Esther Afua Ocloo: What did the Ghanaian entrepreneur do?
She was invited to the first United Nations World Conference on Women
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Your support makes all the difference.She started a business selling juice and marmalade as a teenager and went on to become a pioneer in micro lending. Now Esther Afua Ocloo, the Ghanaian entrepreneur is being featured on the Google Doodle on what would have been her 98th birthday.
After a successful career in business, Ms Ocloo became the first black person to earn a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London.
She went on to teach women about food processing and business and in 1964, she became the executive chairman of the National Food and Nutrition Board of Ghana - the first woman to do so.
Her success did not go unnoticed and she was invited to the first United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975.
She went to become one of the founders of the Women’s World Banking in 1979, which helped to provide women obtain small loans to launch businesses.
The not-for-profit organisation helped boost prosperity and provided millions of women with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs.
Ocloo died in 2002 aged 82 after suffering from pneumonia.
She had four children, three sons and one daughter.
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